Jonathan Waxman and I have been friends for more than 20 years. After I participated in an Alex’s Lemonade Stand event at his NYC restaurant Barbuto two years ago, we began talking of a way to bring him to the West Coast to cook together again. We settled on a benefit for the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, preparing an intimate dinner for 25 people at my home.

The South and Midwest are always tempting to me for a bunch of reasons, BBQ being one of them. So this year for spring break, instead of Mexico or Hawaii, I offered the family a trip to Nashville and Memphis. Not really knowing what they were in for, everyone agreed.

It gets very busy around here at the end of the year. We have happy hour, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year’s Eve menus to plan, along with holiday parties to execute and our annual strategic planning trip where the partners – George Hauer, Trey Foshee and me – go away and discuss the future year ahead. This year we started local, then made our way to Los Angeles for some amazing meals.